Day 4: City Tour of Bordeaux

Thursday, March 16th 2017

Tour of the city

At about 4pm, we all hopped on the tram and went to meet our tour guide at La Fontaine des Trois Grâces. She walked out of the tourism building to greet us, wearing brightly orange colored shoes and a smile on her face. Her name was Véronique, and she said she has lived in Bordeaux her entire life.

The weather was so gorgeous that day. In fact, not a drop of rain fell from the sky during the entire week we were there. Véronique started our tour by giving us a brief historical background of Bordeaux and how the city was created in three fronts.

Examining the interactive map in the tourism building.An artistic rendition of old Bordeaux from the Garonne river.

We then went outside, and she explained the varying architecture throughout the centuries– from the style of the doors to the shape of individual windows and roofs. There were a lot of people around wearing their sunglasses and walking their dogs. A couple of times, you would catch a young couple making out like no one was looking. Public displays of affection are more acceptable here for sure. I loved seeing the different expressions on the stone faces that adorned some of the buildings, and the lively atmosphere this place brought. There was also a vertical green garden in a park that we entered, bustling with kids playing and shoveling dirt into their buckets. In some places, you could find art students sketching scenes of the city in their large sketchbooks.

I was beginning to get used to the cobblestone streets against the sole of my ankle boots as we walked around. Once we were at the river, I gazed out at the bridge with arches that seemed to jump endlessly into the horizon. This city was truly magnificent to me.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Credits to Dr. Guan for taking some of these photos.

Dinner at Le Chaudron and the Rum Bar

We were planning to have a group dinner with everyone at Le Chaudron in downtown Bordeaux. Our professors, the French professors, and all of the UB and UC students filled up about three tables that were reserved for us upstairs. Pouring out glasses of red and white wine, we indulged eagerly into our meal. We started with a salad with vinaigrette and duck meat, then to a steak and fries, and ended with a dessert with a whipped meringue bathed in some sweet milky broth. Gosh, I couldn’t believe it was already Thursday!

After dinner, the French students took us to a bar called L’Excale (formerly La Cale Sèche) that had a lot of great rum cocktails and drinks. It was designed to look like a pirate hideout with all of these barrel tables and hammocks. The music here was also LIT. I got myself a pina colada and jokingly wrote “Do you like pina coladas?” on one of the tables full of scribbled writing next to someone who wrote “UC ❤ UB” My friends gathered around, and we danced the night away.

It was also the night before Anh’s 21st birthday… which meant shots at midnight, right?!